Non-Interruptive Clinical Decision Support to Improve Perioperative Electronic Positive Patient Identification

Positive patient identification (PPID) is an integral step to ensure the correct patient identity prior to a healthcare delivery event. Following implementation of a new EHR in November 2017, Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) experienced frequent and inconsistent failure of barcode scanners which impacted the electronic PPID (ePPID) and blood verification processes. Following multiple iterations of troubleshooting, vendor engagement, and device upgrades, we developed a clinical decision support (CDS) tool as a visual reminder to perform ePPID. If ePPID was initially bypassed, the clinician received a passive alert which remained visible throughout the procedure or until ePPID was completed successfully. We conducted a retrospective observational study using an interrupted time series analysis and analysis of variance pre- and post- CDS intervention. Following CDS intervention, we observed an immediate 20.8% increase in successful ePPID (p < 0.001). The mean success rate of ePPID attempts increased from 62.0% pre-intervention to 94.4% post-intervention (p < 0.001). There were 108 providers who had less than 80.0% success in the six-months prior to CDS intervention, of whom all improved to an average of 95.9% success. Our CDS approach highlights the utility of non-interruptive but continually visible alerts to improve patient safety workflows. By making errors clearly visible to users and their peers, performance improved to only 5.6% of alerts bypassed.